As today’s advancements in aesthetic medicine and skin care increase in convenience and decrease in cost, many more are looking to procedures that can provide them greater youth and self-confidence with little to no recovery time.

Today’s technology is continuously advancing all around us, especially in making treatments and procedures for aesthetic medicine and skin care less invasive, simpler and more affective. And it doesn’t matter whether procedures are performed out of medical necessity or chosen for youthfulness, beauty, and self-confidence.

Area doctors in the fields, including aesthetic dermatology and plastic surgery, say refined techniques and advances in such things as lasers, chemical compounds, and DNA research are minimalizing the invasiveness of procedures and decreasing their down time and cost. As such, this pulls an ever-growing number of people into their offices to correct unwanted effects of aging, difficult skin diseases, and vexing things such as hair loss.

“People come in and say, ‘I’m not really interested in surgery,’ and now there are so many more non-invasive procedures—lunchtime procedures—that allow you to do so much more and that make a noticeable improvement. You can individualize and customize to every patient’s satisfaction,” said Dr. Sonny O, a Charleston plastic surgeon whose greatest specialty is facial rejuvenation.

According to 2016 data from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), there were 15.9 million surgical and minimally-invasive cosmetic procedures performed in the United States in 2015, a 2-percent increase over 2014. The growth trend is certainly expected to continue, but patients are beginning to show different priorities.

Indeed, while surgeries such as breast augmentation continuously rise, the most in-demand item on the aesthetic medicine menu is a combination of non-invasive therapies targeting aspects of our body that bother us most, according to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS), the world’s largest association of facial plastic surgeons.

In 2016, according to its member survey, 66 percent of facial plastic surgeons said the top trend in their practice was a combination of non-surgical procedures on the same patients. Among the most requested were eyelid procedures and other revision surgeries designed to beautify one’s profile, often together with BOTOX® (Allergan), Dysport® (Galderma) and Xeomin® (Merz), followed by hyaluronic acid fillers. Meanwhile, whole facelifts have slipped out of the Top 5 for the first time in years, in part if not wholly because patients have other minimally invasive options that yield good results.

Still at the top of the list are minimally invasive procedures for the elimination of fat in stubborn areas, such as belly or thighs, again, refining technology that kills fat cells through freezing, heat, laser and radio frequency. Among them are SculpSure, Cool Sculpting and SmartLipo, which permanently eliminate fat in the shortest amount of time and without need for recovery.

Dr. O noted the bulk of his practice is still surgical, but newer and better techniques have aligned to give his patients a menu of options that are showing great rates of patient satisfaction and can delay or avoid surgery all together. Laser-based fat reduction, for example, combined with a mini-face lift using local anesthesia can turn a person’s life around with little down time and more natural results.

“Patients know when they are ready for a procedure if something is bothering you enough, said O. “But if not, there are many reasonable options to hold things off. Everybody is different.”